Low Housing Prices Lure Employers

Updated March 8, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

Albuquerque helped to launch Microsoft Corp., when Bill Gates and Paul Allen co-founded the fledgling software giant there in 1975 before moving to Washington state -- in part because of difficulty recruiting new hires in the then-remote desert region.

New Mexico's largest metropolitan area, overshadowed by faster-growing Western rivals such as Seattle and Phoenix, and dominated by smaller businesses, has long struggled to lure and...